The Möbius strip is one of the most curious shapes, and there is value in using it as a metaphor for the leader-follower relationship. The creation and exploration of a Möbius strip promotes a sensemaking process for understanding the dual leader-follower identity necessary for effectiveness in both leader and follower roles. Furthermore, the Möbius strip can help guide thinking about healthy mentoring relationships and the ideal flow between what may seem to be contrasting priorities or styles. This paper explores practical insights from research on middle managers, experience with student programming, and historical analysis of community cultures. The exploration highlights the importance of humility in leadership and surfaces a variety of questions for further consideration.

1. The Möbius Strip:
A Twist in Thinking about
Leader-Follower Relationships
Prepared and Presented by
Eric K. Kaufman, Austin D. Council, I. Dami Alegbeleye, and Perry D. Martin

2. Surprise of the Möbius Strip
“Möbius strips are unique
because of their one sidedness.
Rather than having two sides and
two edges, with a simple twist, a
piece of paper has one side and
one edge. Inner and outer
become one” (Byrnes, 2012, p.
23).

3. Life on the Möbius Strip
Backstage vs. Onstage
“I have to keep repeating, ‘what
seems to be’ because there is no
‘inside’ or ‘outside’ on the
Möbius strip—the two apparent
sides keep co-creating each
other.” (Palmer, 2004)

4. Creating a Möbius Strip

5. Leader/Follower Relationships
• Leadership success depends on flexibility and awareness in leader-
to-follower transitions (Falls & Allen, 2020).
• “Leader and follower roles may be adopted flexibly by the same
individual because in some cases it pays to be a leader and in others
to be a follower” (Van Vugt et al., 2008, p. 186).
• Many individuals are faced with the challenge of “simultaneously
filling the roles of leader and follower” (Greer, 2014, p. 156).
• “Leadership cannot be studied apart from followership” (Van Vugt
et al., 2008, p. 193).

6. Middle Manager
Applications
• Some roles require dual
functions of leading and
following (Alegbeleye &
Kaufman, 2020).
• Möbius strip allows seamless
flow from one behavior and
function to the other,
eliminating the need for
distinctions.

7. Considerations for Community Cultures
• The Möbius strip suggests there is more to consider with regard to
longevity and the sustainment of the organizational or community
culture.
• Our hunter-gatherer heritage reflects prioritizing an egalitarian
ethos, practicing a system of “reverse dominance” preventing
power-grabs (Gray, 2011).
• Society’s infatuation with the “ladder of success” and “moving up in
the world” implies a shift away from this heritage.

8. Considerations for Community Cultures
Giles County, Virginia

9. Relevance to Humility
• Do our historical, cultural or dualistic notions of leadership lead to
leader-follow conflict?
• Framing the leader-follow relationship with the Möbius Strip
suggests a sharing of work, elevating equality over power-dynamics.
• In order to make this shift, a removal of one’s ego is required,
which will enforce the sustainment of the group, individual, and the
larger organizational or cultural context (i.e., humility definition).

10. Humility Definition
• Sowcik, Andenoro and Council (2017) defined humility as “the
ability of an individual to have a proper perspective of themselves,
their relationship with others, and their place in the larger
environment” (p. 170).
• Li (2016) argued that humility is valued in Eastern cultures that
emphasize collectivism more so than Western ones which value
individualism.

11. Ongoing Questions
• In what ways can the Möbius strip help us reframe perspectives on
power, including the simultaneous presence of leadership and
followership within us all?
• How can we transform relationships in ways that better distribute
authority and responsibility, thus reducing the strain on particular
individuals?
• How might we help others abandon the false dichotomy that is
often used to describe leader-follower roles?
• What role could the virtue of humility play in this process?